Our New Temporary Home

There are many similarities between our experience in Liberia and that in Benin so far. There are also a lot of differences. Some of these changes are easier to manage than others. Some of my observations concerning the differences that affect us most are listed below:

1) Unlike in Monrovia, our dock in Cotonou is a working dock busy with vehicles and movement of cargo and other hazards. The kids on the ship are much more recreationally limited in the evenings. This is a definite disadvantage for us.

2) Cotonou is more developed than Monrovia in its present state with more modern shops, goods and services available. There is also widespread electrical power here. The standard of living for many may not be appreciably better, however.

3) The beaches nearby are apparently not safe. Hotel pools are available for water recreation, but they are fairly expensive and crowded.

4) There is more to explore closer to the ship here. We are closer to the main part of town.

5) There are no nearby fields to play ball in. There may be one about a 20 minute walk from the ship - much further away than in Monrovia.

6) There is no visible U.N. presence here.

7) Traffic is a bit more intense. There are thousands of motorcycles (called "zemidjans") on the roads here - far more than in Monrovia - making being on the roads feel a bit like robbing a beehive.

8) Most of the main roads are well paved with few potholes to contend with. The sidewalks are still a bit questionable with very large holes here and there so you still have to watch when walking.

9) The weather seems to be a bit hotter here. The sky has been very hazy since we arrived.

10) We have a fishing village at the port here, so we get to watch the fishing canoes go in and out past our ship at various times throughout the day.

11) Last for now, but certainly not least, French is spoken here along with native tongues, making communication for us decidedly more difficult. We are working on our French as much as time will allow.

John

Swimming at Hotel du Port

As it turns out, the beaches here in Cotonou are reported to be unsafe. Rip currents and rocks are part of the reason, I think. As a result, and since things are a bit more developed here than in Liberia, swimming in local hotel pools may become our primary recreational activity on the weekends when we feel like getting out. It is very hot here! The weather is a bit hotter than in Monrovia, so having some water to play in is a good thing as long as you don't forget the sunscreen. Most of the local hotels that have pools will allow you to swim for a fee. The one we went to on Saturday was about a 30 minute walk away and was apparently one of the more reasonably priced. The cost to swim was 1500 CFA franc ($3 U.S.) for adults and 1000 CFA franc ($2 U.S.) each for the kids. So, we could swim all day for $12. One rule that we found a bit odd was that the hotel requires male swimmers to wear speedo style swim suits. The manager is an apparently French lady who allowed us to swim in what we had on for the day as long as we came properly dressed the next time. I don't fully understand the rationale behind the rule, but I'm not sure it would make much difference if I did. You apparently can get a little more modest style bathing suit that is acceptable in the local markets. I'm grateful for that because I'm not sure I care to wear what amounts to a bikini bottom! It's a frightening thought for me, although seeing some of the swimwear there on Saturday, I'm not sure that anyone would be offended.

We and alot of others from the ship had a pretty good time there on Saturday. They have about a 12 or 15 foot high dive platform that David was off of before we noticed. He isn't intimidated by much it seems. All the kids thoroughly enjoyed jumping from it and getting some good pool time.

John

Hospital Open House

Tonight the ship's hospital had an open house for all the crew. It was a lot of fun! There were opportunities to do surgery on stuffed animals, practice suturing, intubate dummies, go through a "digestive tract" course, see prosthetic eyes, play nurse or patient, and the list goes on. Below are some photos of Joey, Bethany, and David taking part in the festivities.

Above photo by Michel Pelzer

John

At Anchor & Arrival in Benin

dropping anchor

fishermen at sea

docking

putting down the gangway

the flag of Benin

Well, the view outside our cabin windows has changed again. This morning we arrived in Benin and are now docked in Cotonou! It was planned that we would arrive yesterday, but engine trouble required that we spend the night at anchor off the coast in order for the problems to be resolved before making our approach into the port. This meant very long hours for some in engineering yesterday and into the night and was very taxing on our captain as well. It's my understanding that very few on board the ship slept well last night anyways because of the rolling of the ship at anchor. We spent a fairly substantial part of the night trying to corral things that had started sliding off tables and counter tops! And every few seconds as the ship rolled we would hear some glasses or other items in the cupboards clank together. Sadly, we arrived today to much less fanfare than that which was planned for us yesterday, but, with much prayer, we made it here safely and we are thankful.

John

Spelunking in Tenerife

Above photos by Nestor Rial

In recent weeks aboard the ship, we have had several debates with some of our friends here as to whether "spelunking" is an actual word or not. So, for those English friends of ours who may have no idea what the title of this blog entry means, I've found a very nice web site that gives a good history of how this apparently American word came to be: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-spe3.htm

Not long after we arrived in Tenerife, our family was out shopping at a very popular shopping spot for "Mercy Shipers" (I really don't care at all for this term for referring to Mercy Ships volunteers, but it fits here and I thought I would share it with you). We stepped into the sporting goods store to look at shoes and fishing gear. I wanted to ask some questions about fishing rods so, as had become my custom, sort of as a disclaimer or warning that the conversation to follow may require more effort than usual, I started out by saying "No hablo Espanol" to the fellow behind the counter. The reply came in very good English: "That's okay, at least you tried." As it turned out, Nestor and I had a lot in common and a lot to talk about. For one, we are both photographers. That was the first of several conversations with Nestor over the following weeks. In one of our conversations at the sporting goods shop, Nestor had said that he works as a guide as well and would be happy to take our family to do something that most tourists don't usually do in Tenerife. Because we were so busy with so many things while in Tenerife, it took me a while to take him up on his very kind offer, but I finally did. And I am very glad that I did! As a result, David, Joey and I went spelunking with some experienced, local cavers, in some caves left by underground lava flows on the north side of the island (Bethany had decided to go with Jenny to an English-speaking church that morning where Jenny was to share during the service about a Liberian patient who had a nose reconstructed on the ship). Cho Luis was the other guide who came along. He took David under his wing and the two of them led the way though the caves by the light of an acetylene (carbide) head lamp. Cho Luis spoke to David only in Spanish and David listened intently. (In fact, English was seldom spoken at all, only when Nestor needed to translate for us - it was great fun!) David was really feeling like a big boy too, and I enjoyed watching him. Nestor and I took lots of photos:

Above photos by Nestor Rial

We later went to the old town of Garachico where we sat in the square and where Nestor's girlfriend Marta introduced me to a very nice, Canarian coffee drink called a "barraquito" (espresso, milk, sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon, and lemon zest). Marta had asked the waiter to be sure to make the drink properly, but mine came without the lemon zest. So Marta later asked why the lemon zest was left out. A very boisterous and intense conversation ensued, seasoned with quite a bit of laughter. Apparently, there was a tourist who had ordered a barraquito there and had mistaken the lemon for a caterpillar, causing her to lose her appetite and her stomach contents! So I didn't get lemon zest in my barraquito, but I enjoyed it anyway, and I would have missed out on a lot of fun if there had been nothing for Marta to take the proprietor to task about! What fun! Later that day, Nestor and Marta came back to the ship with us and were able to participate in an organized tour of the ship. I must say that day was one of the very best in Tenerife! Thank you to all our Spanish spelunking companions!!

John

Pet for a Day

Yesterday we discovered we had a stowaway in our cabin! I noticed that my new geranium was being eaten by a cute little inchworm (actually a half-inch worm). It was my intention to capture him in a napkin and smoosh him right then. Instead, I showed him to the kids and he became our new pet, Wormy!

Wormy, posing for John

Since there was no way I was going to sacrifice my plant, a juice glass with a geranium leaf became Wormy's new home. We quickly became attached to Wormy and he was taken to the dining room to play cards with us. Every now and then we would check to make sure he hadn't escaped. He seemed very content to hang out on his leaf and nibble it as he wished.

Wormy looking at his former home from the counter

This morning Wormy was still on his leaf in his glass. We were happy, he was happy... Then, this evening, we went to dinner and out on the bow of the ship one last time. When we returned to the cabin, we discovered that a couple of the glasses that had been on the table had slid off with the rolling of the ship. One of the glasses was Wormy's! Oh, no! We rushed to the scene of the accident and soon realized that poor Wormy had been squished dead by the rim of the glass. We were a bit sad, but I was secretly rejoicing that I didn't have to be the one to kill him in the end!

R.I.P. Wormy!

Jenny

Killer Whales and the Fabled Green Flash

This 9 day sail from Tenerife to Benin has been very smooth and we have seen a few pretty neat things. We have seen several pods of dolphins and yesterday we saw a group of about 3 or so orcas.

I also was able to get a photo of the "green flash" that the mariners among us talk about. On a clear evening the sun , as it sinks down, appears to be green just as it ducks under the waves. A few days ago the conditions were good. Looking through a telephoto lens, the sun appeared to be green for 4 or 5 seconds before it disappeared. The photo below was made with a 400mm lens and even then was heavily cropped. It looked pretty green to me.

John

Tenerife Rainbows

One thing that was just amazing about being in Santa Cruz de Tenerife was the number of rainbows we saw while we were there. The way the rain clouds at times hover over the land but at sea the skies remain clear makes conditions just right for rainbows. We saw many of them, some lasting for more than an hour! I had never before seen a rainbow last for more than just a few minutes. Below are some photos I made in and around Santa Cruz where we were docked. The photo with the statues of Guanche rulers was taken in Candelaria, a town not far from Santa Cruz.

John

Six Weeks in Tenerife

The past six weeks seem a bit of a blur. We had a nice time in Tenerife, but it was not particularly restful. In some ways it was. Being in a place where there was lots to do was very nice. We could go to the parks with the kids and not feel like we had to be on guard. There are still a lot of cultural differences between the U.S. and Tenerife, not to mention the fact that Tenerife is part of Spain and English is seldom spoken there, so we had a few hurdles along the way. Despite that, though, it was so nice just to stroll around or watch the kids play and feel safe and carefree. Quite a contrast to the constant tension we have felt in Africa. We haven't felt particularly worried in Africa, but there is an underlying tension there knowing how volitile things can be just walking around town.

Well, mostly our time in Tenerife was very, very busy. Jenny worked just as hard as she had in Liberia. Most of her co-workers went away for vacation, so she spent a lot of time sorting out things for the upcoming field service in Benin - working on supply issues, O.R. equipment maintenance issues, human resources issues, etc. I didn't do very much work for the Communications Department, but instead focused on taking care of the children as they were out of school for 5 out of the 6 weeks we were in Tenerife. One week we were in and out of a local hopital as one of our very good friends on the ship became ill and had to have surgery. We are grateful that all went well with the surgery and she has recovered well. We are very happy, to say the least, that she is still with us on the ship. During our time in Tenerife, I also looked after the household and trying to make sure we took care of the shopping that needed to be done before heading to Benin. We were sure to get all the kids at least 2 pairs of shoes (the ones we got in Africa were not good quality - Bethany's were literally falling off her feet 5 days after we bought them). Shopping in Tenerife was not without it's challenges, though. Questions like: "How do you figure out where to go to get what you need at a reasonable price?" and "How do I ask for that size shoe in Spanish? And what size is a 47 anyway?" and "How much is that 50 Euro blanket really going to cost me in dollars? (only $70 or so - OUCH!)" were abundant. That said, all worked out pretty well. We got what we needed and had a bit of an adventure doing it. Jenny's parents, of course, came to visit. We had a great time with them, but wore them, and ourselves out. We really tried to make the most of our time in Tenerife too by trying to get out and see some of it. In reality, we are pretty much completely exhausted now, so I'm hoping we can get some rest now while we sail. I'm catching up too on things like blogging, along with a myriad of other things, which have been neglected for over a month now. So I guess the fact that I am writing this now means that I am making some progress - yea!

Well with wonderful European dairy products and fruits, and fresh, perfectly cooked meats mostly behind us now, except for what we could fit in our tiny fridge, we are on our way back to Africa. We will miss Tenerife and got a bit teary as we left the port in Santa Cruz. The same fellow who played the trumpet for us when we arrived in Tenerife was there on the dock playing as we left along with a group of folks with a banner that read, among other things, "We love you". What a tremendous blessing!!

John